Sherman
''"He didn't do very well on the test. But that just means that he won't lead." Sherman about Steven. '' Sherman was once a member of The Church Of Pelor in Amaranthia, a past member of the Sabertooth guild, the leader of the Dawnguard, and a member of the Fate Slayers Silver Dragons. Appearance Sherman is a strong, tall human, with purple eyes and blonde hair. He is always sporting his breastplate armor, and a heavy metal shield with the symbol of Pelor on it. Biography Early Life Sherman was abandoned early at The Church Of Pelor in Amaranthia. The head of the Pelor faith, Marcus Dawning, took the him in and raised him as his own. He raised him to be part of the Paladin order, a group of soldiers who worship Pelor. In his time there, he built up quite the rivalry with Dante Goldenblade, one of the strongest of the recruits. He would work hard to keep up with Dante, but unfortunately would stay a few steps behind him. Many years later, Sherman decided to leave the Paladin order on his own pilgrimage. On this pilgrimage, he met with a monk known as Emeth Mechapes, who was looking to form a guild. Sherman used his connections to become a member of the Sabertooth guild, and once he officially joined, he helped Emeth and a group of his friends join as well. Dead War Sherman worked in the guild for a year before the others joined, but didn't do much besides his initiation quests. He kept an eye on his companions while working on his own quests. When they set out for their initiation quests, Sherman decided to set out on a quest as well with two mage friends he made in the guild, Gregory and Harold. It was a simple quest, simply guarding a caravan as it was making it's way to Whitehelm. The quest went by rather smoothly, having to fight some kobolds and goblins along the way, but the group dispatched their enemies quickly before continuing. Once they had finished the quest and collected their reward, they made their way for Sherman's companions. The three met with them just outside the town of Nater, where they were being attacked by a group of bandits. Once they were finished, Sherman introduced his companions to Gregory and Harold, then questioned where the rest of his friends were. Ulfbert Mythrilmane went to Amaranthia for a religious retreat, Lorna Davi returned to the guild to deposit the gold earned into their funds, while Driksis and Solantis were following a lead on discovering their forgotten memories. Sherman offered to help them finish their final two initiation quests, as they lost half of their adventurers. The group continued on and came across a pair of slaves running away from a larger group of people. Before they got a chance to intervene, one of the two slaves had been killed, causing the other to transform into a bear-man hybrid. Together, they managed to take out the slave drivers, unfortunatetly at the loss of Harold due to a rogue fire ball. Emeth and the slave, Lucian, seemed particularly saddned by the death of the other slave, so the group settled down to collect themselves. Emeth left the scene with the body of the slave and Harolds old cloak. While Sherman engaged in conversation with Lucian about how he knew the other slave, Emeth returned with a new friend wearing Harolds cloak. He didn't think much of it, and so the group continued to root out the slave drivers camped out nearby. They got the drop in the slave drivers, taking them out fairly quickly, and freed the captured slaves. After that, they thwarted a werewolf lord who was experimenting on retired adventurers. Moving on, they also exposed a thief who stole one of the silver dragon Terandious' eggs. As thanks, he gave Sherman and the others each a magic pendant as well as the scales of his dead wife for them. After returning from the missions, Sherman received a letter from Marcus inviting him back home for a special pilgrimage. He asked his friends to come along with him, and they accepted. On the way to Amaranthia, they found a man in excruciating pain. While trying to help him, a number of undead creatures appeared. They dispatched the undead while Emeth attempted to remove a magic ring from his finger, but accidentally tore the man's arm off. The ring sunk into the ground, Emeth attempted to retrieve it while Sherman reattached the man's arm. With the ring lost, the group made their way to Amaranthia. When the entered the city, they were met by Dante. The two exchanged unsavory words, and parted ways. When they met with Marcus to hear what the pilgrimage was about, Dante burst into the room furious that 'his rite was taken from him'. Marcus kicked him out of the room, and sent them to repair an ancient relic and return it. They set out and met with the dwarf who was to repair the relic, and decided to dispatch some goblins nearby to pass the time. Emeth and Bobo went back to the dwarf to check on him, and returned not long after saying he had been killed. Emeth seemed to know the location of the assailant, so they all quickly took off. They found a group of cultists in a temple in possession of the relic, and quickly dispatched it, though it seemed too easy. Moments later, Dante appeared and revealed his plan to kill them and take credit for their actions. As he went to attack them, he couldn't use his magic for some reason. Emeth landed the killing blow, causing the temple to collapse. Quickly grabbing the relic, they managed to escape the collapse and return the relic to Marcus. A few months after returning from Amaranthia, one of his companions, Wolfie received a letter informing him that his father had passed away. To offer their support, everyone went with him to the funeral. Amonst the people everyone met was Wolfies cousin, Roy Arcadia. He was fairly rude to Wolfie, so he decided to do a little bit of digging around. It seemed that Roy had always hated Wolfie with a passion since they were kids. He also brought a fair amount of unruly guests with him. During the reading of the will, Wolfie was gifted a special sword from his grandfather. Which seemed to infuriate Roy, who opted to challenge Wolfie to a duel to the death. During the fight, a rogue archer attacked Wolfie, but Xander quickly took him out and fired a pay back shot on Roy. Moments later, Wolfie cut off Roy's arm and told him to leave and never come back. Sherman could see Xander following after him, but he returned looking disappointed. A few weeks later, Sherman and the others had a run in with a Turasque. They were able to find the source of it's rampaging, unfortunately at the cost of Bobo's life. Luckily, Emeth was able to find someone to bring him back to life. Something seemed off about Emeth afterward, almost like he was keeping something hidden, but Sherman felt it best not to pry. After a few weeks, the guild received a personal request to look into well trained scouts who had gone missing. The group tracked down the scouts last known location and found a cave nearby. After they entered the cave, they came to a clearing with the open sky, and no other exits. A magical bolt caused a collapse at the entrance and a man wearing black armor and a skull mask dropped down from above. A group of undead beings popped up from the ground, separating Sherman from his friends. He tried his hardest to fend off his assailant, but eventually fell unconscious. When he awoke, he did not have any of his armor or weapons, and he was tied to a chair in a cell. The man in armor entered the cell, with two people bound with bags on their heads. Sherman could tell somewhere deep down that this was Dante. The man removed the bags to reveal one of them as his mother whom he had met a few weeks before and a younger woman he hadn't met before. He assumed that this person must be someone connected to him as well. The knight tried to force him to choose between the two, and when he chose the younger girl, the knight stabbed her in the chest and then cut his bindings. As he left, the girl rose up as a walking corpse. He used the chair to kill the undead, and moments later the knight came in and stabbed his mother as well. After dealing with his undead mother, Sherman managed to break the door to his holding cell. He tried to find his way around the temple he was in, which looked very similar to the temple where he fought Dante, all but confirming his suspicion. He eventually found his way to the foyer, where his friends were fighting Dante. He saw a balor demon with them, as well as Terandious. Unfortunately, Dante was able to escape, but not before summoning a giant skeletal dragon. They were able to destroy the dragon and return Sherman's stolen equipment. When they returned to the guild, the demon introduced himself as Griffith, and Sherman felt that he must be a good person if he helped save him. A few months later, the guild received a personal request for Sherman and his companions with a royal seal on it. The group set out to meet with the people who wrote the letter, making a small pit stop on the way. During the night, Lucian went on a rampage in his sleep. He stated that it was a bad nightmare that he was enacting, and before going back to sleep Bobo opted to tie him up. The next morning, they continued to the meeting place, and were accompanied by a young elf as well who stuck close to Emeth. When they got to the meeting place, they saw a man looking on at a man wrestling with a minotaur. Bobo attempted to go on to help, but the man looking on stopped him. The man fighting the minotaur killed his opponent and made his way to the group. They introduced themselves as Edmond Shieldheart and Gordon Swordhand, and stated that Edmonds wife and son had been kidnapped and they needed help. The two led them to a temple amongst a mass amount of corpses. When they went to the entrance, they fought against a small group of zombies. During the fight, Edmond used a magical retractable sword which caught Sherman's interest. After fighting a much larger undead, they made their way into the temple. They saw a man with two giant crystals chanting. After conversing with him and discerning that they were about to be overrun by undead, the man killed himself after freeing Edmonds wife and son. Using a mass amount of explosives, the group managed to kill a fair amount of undead, while they dispatched the rest. Edmond showed his gratitude with payment and offering help with any future endeavors. Sherman took the time to ask about his sword, and Edmond recommended his enchanter. While on their way back to the guild, Emeth decided to take a quick detour. Wondering what was going on, Sherman followed close by. He came across a small hut, but the front door was locked. When he went around back to another door and opened it, he saw Emeth standing next two another man, with Marcus' head lying on the ground. Moments later, Emeth attacked the other man, and Bobo appeared in the room. Emeth quickly tackled Sherman behind a desk, and Bobo exploded. While inspecting the room, Sherman noticed that the head no longer looked like Marcus, and assumed what had happened. While continuing on their way, Emeth informed the group that the guild hall had finally been finished and that they were ready to move in. When they entered, he was surprised to see Bobo still alive, as well as someone he didn't recognize. Sherman tried to introduce himself to the elven looking man, but he seemed very distant. The group continued to the common area, where they met with Griffith and a halfling man. The man seemed to know who Emeth was, who introduced him as an old co-worker, and he made an off handed comment about a job requiring being paid. This seemed to aggravate Emeth who told him to go to Emeths room. After Emeth left the room, Griffith handed everyone a black pearl earring, and told them it gave them a method of communication over large distances. When Emeth returned, he told everyone that they had a job to take care of. They went to a temple of some sort, where they learned of a cult kidnapping people. They were lead to the temple by a gnome who escaped them. When they arrived, they were met by a small group of cultists. As they continued through the temple, freeing a slave and good cultist along the way, they discovered that the gnome had sold them out for his freedom. Unfortunately for him, he was betrayed and killed, and someone they claimed Emeth knew appeared to be under their thrall. It was a hard fought battle, but they were able to emerge victorious. They returned to the collective of ex-slaves, the elven man left on some other business, and Wolfie and Bobo left on their own business. When everyone else returned to the guild, they took up an unofficial job request. They set out to discover that the town was being overrun by vampires. A man named Victor, who claimed to be a vampire hunter offered them aid. The group rooted out some vampires, and discovered where their hideout was. Everyone decided to rest while it was daytime, and check out the scene just before sunset. The group went to sleep, and when they awoke they were on stone slabs underground. Sherman and Emeth heard Lucian call out from another room, and rushed to stop a vampire from feeding on him. Once they found their equipment, they continued on to discover that the vampire hunter Victor turned out to be a vampire lord himself. As they carved their way through his vampire underlings, they were stopped by a large group of deathknights before they could reach him. As more deathknights appeared to pin down Victor, Dante showed up and killed him. Before leaving, he tossed Emeth the old ring now drained of its magic, telling him it might be valuable once he rules the world. Then, he and all his deathknights retreated into the shadows. As they were leaving the city, they found a man wearing the same outfit as Victor tied up in a closet. The man had no memory of the events that had happened, it appeared that he was under some kind of compulsion. Emeth seemed to feel bad for him, as he offered him a job with an exorbitant amount of money, to which he accepted. As the group continued back to the guild, they made a short pit stop in Nater, where Emeth also hired a new blacksmith and accountant under similar pretenses. When they returned to the guild, the new employees quickly got to work. They also received notice that Maverick, their old guild master, had killed himself. In addition to that, it also appeared that Emeth had sold the ashes of a demon lord, and he was being revived. After naming Emeth the first guild master, he opted to hold the funeral at the guild hall, and invited all the old members of the guild. Early the following day, a gnome arrived at the guild with an unconscious Wolfie and Bobo, and told he was offered a job that would involve inspecting strange people, though the gnome seemed slightly disappointed in Sherman. After the funeral was finished, the group made way to stop the resurrection of Maloron, the demon lord. After a pit stop in Amaranthia, both to gain forces and better equipment, the group made way for the ritual. Sherman, Lucian and Griffith remained outside to fight the forces there, while the others went to the ritual to stop it. Once their forces were finished off, Griffith teleported everyone to the ritual, where a colossal balor demon stood. The demon wasted no time in killing Griffith, as he posed the biggest threat. After Griffiths death, Lucian sacrificed himself to save everyone. Before leaving, Sherman dropped an explosive, sealing the cave. As they returned to Amaranthia to warn Marcus, he returned everyone to the guild hall. As they entered, Jeff told everyone that they had new recruits waiting in the common area. As they entered, they saw Dante and a small group of deathknights with all their employees bound and gagged. Dante proposed an alliance to defeat this new threat, as he wanted to rule the world, not destroy it. As they began speaking, and unknown man appeared in the room and decapitated two of the deathknights, while pulling Veronica and Zack away from them. Veronica seemed to recognize the man as Michael Stoneskin. The group continued their conversation, they agreed to work with Dante for now at least. After Dante and his band of deathknights left, Sherman decided to write a letter to Marcus requesting a cleric come to make the ground hallow. After finishing his letter, he could hear faint vomiting in the distance. He later discovered that Jeff had died due to some kind of stomach virus. The guild then officially hired a new receptionist, a succubus named Belira who was an old friend of Griffith. Sherman decided to have a few drinks with her after the rough experience with Dante, and bed her later that night. The following day, before marching to Maloron, the gnome healer asked for Sherman's help with an experiment. He drank a potion, which turned him invisible, but left his body visible. The group then proceeded to perform some tests on new guild recruits. One of the new recruits seemed rather misanthropic, while another one seemed to lack a great deal of skill. Other than that, all of the new recruits impressed Sherman. After deciding which members were aloud to join and which ones weren't, they set out to defeat Maloron. The group met up with Dante, who had a horde of undead prepared for the fight. They met against Maloron who was attacking Amaranthia, but the city was warded to protect against them. It was a hard fought battle, but they were able to defeat him with Dante landing the final blow. Unfortunately, he revived Maloron as his undead thrall, and managed to escape. After returning to Amaranthia to inform Marcus, he sent them back to their guild with the cleric Jennifer to make the guild area hallowed ground. Back at the guild, Sherman went to sleep after a hard day's work. The following day, the group set out to fight against Dante. They received word that the city of Nater had been decimated, and the undead were advancing. The group met up with the royal armies and continued marching forward. Expecting a great fight, instead Ventus fired three beams of holy energy from a magic device, though it didn't seem to affect the castle. Once the undead outside were dealt with, a small group entered the castle. At the base of the staircase in the front entrance was Roy, taunting the adventurers. Ventus and Yve started attacking right away, and much to their surprise James appeared behind him and took the final blow. After Roy fell, he transformed into a strange creature Sherman had not seen before. After ascertaining where Dante might be, Emeth teleported a group of them up to what seemed like the top floor. The floor was empty, save for some experiments on a table. The group found a hidden door above them, and mounted their attack. The fight was over quite quickly, with Emeth killing Dante while sunken into the ground, and Ventus killing an injured Roy. Though Emeth asked for Sherman to get Dantes sword, he couldn't see it anywhere and instead found a black orb instead. Yves attempts to lift if proved futile, and her holy axe was repelled off the blade. Even Sherman's plain mace was destroyed upon touching the orb. Bobo then showed up shortly after and despite warnings, touched the orb and was absorbed into it. A shockwave burst from the orb, destroying the castle and doing considerable damage to the Arcadia mansion. After quickly discussing with Marcus, who was currious if anybody attacked with magical nonholy weapons. Discovering that it could do damage to the orb, the group began attacking the spectral being that sprouted from the orb. Each attack caused another shockwave to appear from the orb, but it was eventually destroyed. And with that the last trace of Dante was wiped out. Marcus spoke to Sherman after the battle, granting him the last name Sunshield, and asked if he would return to the dawnguard to help reform it after the shape Dante left it in. Sherman accepted and returned to Amarantia. Post Dead War After the death of Dante, and the war was finally over, Sherman returned to Amaranthia to help reshape the Dawnguard. After things were finally stable, Sherman attempted many pilgrimages to Olyanor so that he could forge a good relationship with the elves. Unfortunately, he was attacked on sight each time and barely escaped with his life. After finally giving up hope, he made an effort to spread the word of Pelor as far as he could across Dondar. While on a pilgrimage to Whitehelm, he met with an avid Pelor worshiper named Ashley, and the two fell in love. He eventually married her and had a son named Duncan. Sherman taught him to be a paladin as he was, and eventually retired once Duncan was old enough to lead the Dawnguard. He died of old age with his wife. Equipment Sherman has a holy long sword once owned by the first Paladin. He also has an enchanted set of breastplate armor preventing critical hits. Sherman's Shield also has the ability to resist spells. Powers Sherman is a skilled paladin, and possesses many healing and support spells.